- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The flameskimmers are back!
We've been waiting for the new generation of flameskimmers, aka firecracker skimmers (Libellula saturata), to visit our yard after the long winter.
On Sunday, a male flameskimmer did.
It perched on a bamboo stake, soaked up some rays, took flight, and then returned to its perch. It glittered in the morning sun, a ruby helicopter of an insect. Finally, it clumsily took off, zigging and zagging over the cherry laurel hedge.
Meanwhile, a Western scrub jay nesting in the cherry laurels tracked its movements.
Says Wikipedia: "Due to its choice habitat of warm ponds, streams, or hot springs, flame skimmers are found mainly in the southwestern part of the United States. They also make their homes in public gardens or backyards."
"An immature flame skimmer (nymph) feeds mainly on aquatic insects. Its diet consists of mosquito larvae, aquatic fly larvae, mayfly larvae, freshwater shrimp, small fish, and tadpoles. The nymphs, which live in the mud at the bottom of warm streams or ponds, catch their prey by waiting patiently for it to pass by. Adult skimmers usually feed on moths, flies, ants, or any other soft-bodied insect while waiting perched on a small rock or twig or while flying through the air."
It's our fish pond that draws dragonflies to our yard. To accommodate them, we've posted a dozen bamboo stakes at different heights, from four feet to six feet. Finches and hummingbirds perch on them, too.
To be honest, however, the bamboo stakes are mainly for the dragonflies. (But don't tell that to the finches and hummers.)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
A friend gave you some old bee boxes. So where do you start? What do you do?
Before you fill those boxes with bees, you should plan ahead, says Extension apiculturist emeritus Eric Mussen, whose career spanned 38 years before he retired last June. He continues to maintain an office in Briggs Hall, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and is often asked these kinds of questions. We thought we'd share some of the advice he recently gave to a prospective beekeeper.
“The most difficult problem that you are likely to face in California is where your apiaries are going to be located for use during certain times of the year," Mussen said. "There are very few places in California where you can let honey bee colonies just sit there and they will do fine. If such spots exist, other beekeepers already have 'squatters' rights' on them and intrusions can lead to nasty activities. The best way to be certain of at least some locations is to buy out an old-time beekeeper who is ready to leave the business. By 'beekeepers' agreement' you get to use his or her bee yards. You also are likely to pick up the old beekeeper's almond contracts. You will need those, or new ones, to prosper."
"Next November the California State Beekeepers' Association is holding its annual convention in Sacramento the week before Thanksgiving. That is THE GATHERING of beekeepers in this state. It will provide your best opportunity to 'schmooze' with your peers and find out who might be ready to phase out of the business allowing you to phase in."
What about the using old bee boxes?
"There are two things important to you," Mussen says,"that you have to watch for:
- Combs containing 'scale' that formed following an American foulbrood disease problem. If you don't know what I am talking about, find someone nearby who does and talk it over with them.
- The outer dimensions of beehive boxes made by many manufacturers have identical outside dimensions. However, inside the boxes, each manufacturer uses its own method of producing the 'bee space' between the top bars and bottom bars of frames. When equipment form various companies are stacked together, some combs will touch and be glued together with propolis and some will have too large a gap which will be filled with beeswax comb sticking the combs together. Working with such a stuck-together mess is time consuming and frustrating. The bees will let you know that it bothers them, too!
"I believe that most beekeeping equipment manufacturers produce good products. You might want to consider which company has a large outlet closest to where you will be headquartered. You will be running to the supply company many more times than you can imagine."
"Your final decision is very important, because it impacts your beekeeping from just about the time you put your bees in the boxes. Are you going to try to keep bees with no chemical intervention to prevent or reduce commonly-occurring problems like American foulbrood and Varroa mites? Or are you going to first try 'soft' approaches, and then more rigorous approaches if the problem seems to persist? Yes, there are a few commercial beekeepers who do not treat their colonies very often, if at all, but they are using mite-resistant lines of bees and they tend not to stay in the heart of the agricultural production areas all season. Most of them pollinate almonds, then scoot off to try to produce a honey crop."
Of course, new beekeepers are encouraged to read beekeeping books; subscribe to bee publications such as American Bee Journal and Bee Culture; join a local beekeepers' association, join state and regional associations; and get to know bees and beekeepers. A regional beekeeping association, co-founded by Mussen, who is a five-term president, is the Western Apicultural Society.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Bees and other pollinators may have a tough time during the fourth year of California's severe drought, as they search for nectar and pollen. Expect to see many plants wither, wilt and die due to the "D" word, "Drought."
Gov. Jerry Brown's mandate that we cut our water use by at least 25 percent worries many a bee gardener.
But wait, the UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery has scheduled a public plant sale for Saturday, April 11 starring low-water, drought-tolerant plants.
The sale will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Garrod Drive. They're offering a list of 35 Low-water Plants You've (Probably) Never Heard of. It's a good time to explore what they have to offer.
Going through the list, we see they have anemones, desert spoons, desert willows, gold tooth aloe, mouse-eared tickseed, buckwheats, and salvia (sages), among others. Many are bee favorites. (A good resource is California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners (Heyday Publications), a book written by scientists affiliated with the University of California, Gordon W. Frankie, Robbin W. Thorp, Rollin E. Coville, and Barbara Ertter)
The low-water plants that UC Davis Aboretum lists?
- Agave americana ‘Mediopicta Alba' white-striped century plant
- Carpenteria californica ‘Elizabeth' Elizabeth bush anemone
- Dasylirion wheeleri desert spoon
- Agave vilmoriniana octopus agave
- Chilopsis linearis desert willow
- Dudleya caespitosa coast dudleya
- Aloe × spinosissima gold tooth aloe
- Coreopsis auriculata ‘Nana' dwarf mouse-eared tickseed
- Eremophila maculata ‘Aurea' spotted emu bush
- Arctostaphylos pajaroensis ‘Paradise' paradise Manzanita
- Correa pulchella ‘Orange Flame' orange flame correa
- Eriogonum fasciculatum ‘Theodore Payne' dwarf California buckwheat
- Eriogonum umbellatum sulphur buckwheat
- Geranium × cantabrigiense ‘Biokovo' Biokovo geranium
- Leucophyllum frutescens Cenizo
- Festuca idahoensis ‘Clearwater Blue' Clearwater Idaho fescue
- Grindelia camporum Great Valley gum plant
- Othonna cheirfolia Barberry ragweed
- Fremontodendron ‘San Gabriel'
- Horkelia californica California horkelia
- Pelargonium sidoides garnet geranium
- Gambelia speciosa ‘Firecracker' Island snapdragon
- Peritoma arborea bladderpod
- Perovskia atriplicifolia ‘Lissvery' PBR silvery blue Russian sage
- Phlomis ‘Edward Bowles' hybrid Jerusalem sage
- Salvia clevelandii ‘Aromas' San Diego sage
- Stachys albotomentosa ‘Hidalgo' Hidalgo stachys
- Prunus andersonii desert peach
- Salvia ‘San Carlos Festival' San Carlos hybrid sage
- Sternbergia lutea autumn crocus
- Russelia equisetiformis coral fountain
- Sedum stenopetalum worm-leaved stonecrop
- Yucca filamentosa ‘Color Guard' color guard yucca
- Salvia × jamensis ‘California Sunset' orange autumn sage
- Sophora secundiflora Texas mountain laurel
We're quite fond of the anemone--especially when there's a bee on it--and the gum plant--definitely when there's a bee on it.
In our yard we find that catmint (Nepeta), Mexican sunflower (Tithonia), tower of jewels (Echium wildpretii) take little water and attract many pollinators. The Tithonia, an annual, bloomed last year from April through October. It seemed happy even when the temperature hit 100 degrees.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
That's not to say you'll see beneficial insects doing their thing—but you might.
The event, a walk and talk, is “Scouting Out the Hedgerows on the DH Long Farm,” set from 10 a.m. to noon at 8304 County Road 91B, Zamora. Coffee and snacks will be available at 9:45.
The workshop, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), Solano Resource Conservation District (RCD), Colusa County RCD, and the Yolo County RCD. Attendees are asked to wear "good walking shoes and a hat" and bring water.
The event begins at 10 with a welcome by Laurel Sellers, UCCE project assistant, Yolo County, who will provide a DPR grant project update.
Next to speak will be John Anderson of Hedgerow Farms, Winters, at 10:10. His topic is “Land of Milkweed and Honey: A Walk Into Beneficial Insect Habitat.”
Anderson will be followed at 10:35 by Sellers speaking on “Rodent Activity and Hedgerows: What's the Correlation?” Sellers is a master's degree candidate in international agricultural development, UC Davis.
Then at 10:55, Kristina Wolf, a doctoral candidate in entomology at UC Davis, will cover “Raptors, Rodents and Reptiles, What's in Restored Grasslands?”
Rachael Long, UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor, Yolo County, will offer her insights on “Establishing Hedgerows: Protecting Crops with Insect Predators and Parasitoids” at 11:15.
Following Long's talk, Kelly Garbach of Loyola University, Chicago, will share “Hedgerow Survey Highlights.” A summary and audience review will follow.
For more information, contact Rachael Long at rflong@ucanr.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Mosquitoes will take the spotlight, front line and center, this month.
On Wednesday, April 8, Regents Professor Michael Strand of the University of Georgia, Athens, and internationally recognized for his research on parasite-insect host interactions, will speak on "The Role of Microorganisms in Growth, Development and Reproduction of Mosquitoes” at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar from 12:10 to 1 p.m. in 122 Briggs.
Next the Pacific Branch of the Entomologist Society of America (PBESA) will honor medical entomologist Thomas W. Scott, distinguished professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, at its 99th annual conference, April 12-15, in C'ouer d'Alene, Idaho. He will receive the coveted C. W. Woodworth Award for his outstanding work on dengue, a mosquito-transmitted disease.
And then on Friday, April 24, UC Davis will co-host the fourth annual Bay Area World Malaria Day Symposium, set from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday, April 24 on the Clark Kerr campus, UC Berkeley. UC Davis and Zagaya, a non-profit organization that envisions a malaria-free world, are partnering on the project.
Michael Strand Seminar April 8
Professor Strand's talk is much anticipated. "Mosquitoes are well recognized as the most important arthropod vectors of disease-causing pathogens," Strand says in his abstract. "Interest in the gut microbiota of mosquitoes has risen recently as a potential tool for manipulating vector competency. In contrast, much less is known about the role of this community in mosquito growth, development and reproduction. In this talk I will discuss recent results from our lab group regarding the composition of the gut microbiome in different mosquito species and insights we have gained about the function of this community in mosquito biology and evolution."
Strand focuses his research in the areas of parasite-host interactions, virology, immunity and development. Current projects center on virus-host interactions, function of the insect immune system, and regulation of reproduction in mosquitoes and other insects.
Strand will be introduced by molecular biologist Shirley Luckhart, professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology School of Medicine, and co-director of the UC Davis-based Center for Vector-borne Diseases (CVEC).
Talk will turn to dengue at the PBESA meeting in Co'eur d'Alene, Idaho. Professor Scott, who has researched mosquito-borne disease for 35 years and is retiring in June, is a global authority on the epidemiology of mosquito-borne disease, mosquito ecology, evolution of mosquito-virus interactions, and evaluation of novel products and strategies for mosquito control and disease prevention. Among the top vector biologists in the world, he is recognized as the leading expert in the ecology and epidemiology of dengue.
Scott is known for his holistic and comprehensive approach in finding solutions to protect the world's population from dengue, a disease that infects some 400 million per year. Some 4 billion people in 128 countries, more than half of the world's population, are at risk for dengue. Currently no vaccine or drug is effective against this life-threatening disease.
Scott's most significant research contributions concern the ecology and epidemiology of dengue:
- Blood feeding behavior, longevity, dispersal, and vector-virus interactions of the mosquito Aedes aegypti;
- Longitudinal cohort studies of spatial and temporal patterns in human dengue virus infection in Peru and Thailand; (dengue research in Peru, Thailand, Puerto Rico and Mexico for the past 25 years)
- Impact of human movement on mosquito contact rates and spatial dimensions of dengue virus transmission; and
- Mathematical and computer simulation modeling of mosquito population biology and mosquito-borne pathogen transmission.
Scott co-founded the Center for Vector-Borne Research (CVEC), comprised of researchers throughout the UC System. See more information on Scott.
Patrick Duffy, chief of the National Institutes of Health's Laboratory of Malaria Immunology and Vaccinology, will keynote the fourth annual Bay Area World Malaria Day Symposium, set Friday, April 24 on the Clark Kerr campus, UC Berkeley. The symposium, to take place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., will be co-hosted by UC Davis and Zagaya.
Duffy is an internationally recognized expert in human malaria pathogenesis, malaria in pregnancy, and malaria vaccine development. He has published more than 100 papers on malaria over his nearly 25-year career.
UC Davis co-host Shirley Luckhart, professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology School of Medicine, and co-director of the Center for Vector-borne Diseases, will be one of the speakers.
Meanwhile, take a look at the spectacular mosquito images taken by entomologist/photographer Jena Johnson of Athens, GA (she is married to Michael Strand). This is the Aedes aegypti mosquito blood-feeding on her.
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